2010 is well and truely here and I haven’t updated my blog for a while, so here goes…One of the more interesting things I have been working on lately is Exchange 2010. Released towards the end of 2009, this version has many improvements over Exchange 2007 and I have been dying to roll it out to clients.
One of the biggest issues that has prevented many people putting Exchange 2010 into production until now has been backup. Many of my clients use Symantec BackupExec which until last week didn’t support Exchange 2010. Upgrading BackupExec from 12.5 to 2010 is required before Exchange 2010 can be backed up. Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager (DPM 2010) supports Exchange 2010 but is still in beta and being a bit conservative when it comes to client networks, I generally wait for products to go RTM before deploying.
The other Symantec product on my radar is Symantec Mail Security, the current version doesn’t support Exchange 2010, however version 6.5 due out before the end of February 2010.
I should know in the next week or so if this really is “bliss”. My Experience with Symantec recently could best be described as buggy. I hope they have learnt some lessons from the BackupExec and Endpoint Security issues of 2008/2009 and the quality of BackupExec 2010 and Mail Security 6.5 is good!
Update: 27 Feb 2010
BackupExec 2010 is now up and running in production. Only one minor issue with the mailbox of the BackupExec service account causing errors after it was moved to Exchange 2010 (with Exchange 2003 still in the backup). Simple work around, was to create a new service account and mailbox on Exchange 2003 and move that mailbox last.
SharePoint lightbulb moments 
Do you know if there is any good article on setting up Exchange 2010 backup with BEWS 2010?
This article is good:
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/339427.htm
I have a several sites using BackupExec 2010 with Exchange 2010. Works very well and it is the same as setting up Exchange 2007 backup jobs.
I would strongly avoid Backup Exec 2010. It is extremely buggy, especially with the dedupe option.
Another caveat is that Exchange 2010 is 64bit only, meaning you must use a 64bit Backup Exec 2010 media server. The Symantec documentation doesn’t make this important point immediately clear.